Most private-label sellers who talk to us have already worked with at least one agency. The complaints are remarkably consistent: a junior account manager juggling too many brands, monthly reports full of ACoS screenshots, ads scaled into a stockout, and a polite “not a fit” the moment the account gets difficult. This page compares how a typical agency for Amazon sellers tends to operate with how Embarc works, using real but anonymised client numbers. We don’t name other agencies, and we don’t name our clients.
Many agencies sell ad management and treat listings, inventory, compliance and account health as extras or someone else’s problem. Embarc is private-label only and runs the whole account on one weekly system: ads, listings, search rank, stock and account health, reported in plain language every week. We actively take on the hard accounts — restricted categories, stockout collapses and suspensions — and the results below come from exactly those accounts.
- Judge any agency on scope, who does the work, how often they touch your account, and what you keep if you leave.
- Ads alone can’t fix a listing that doesn’t convert, a lost Buy Box or a stockout. Ask who owns those problems.
- Weekly beats monthly. Small leaks in ad spend and rank become big ones in four weeks.
- Ask for proof from accounts like yours, not from the agency’s easiest client.
Embarc vs a typical agency: side by side
“Typical” here means the patterns sellers most often describe to us on audit calls, not any one firm. Plenty of good agencies avoid some of these. Use the table as a checklist for whoever you’re evaluating, including us.
| Typical agency | Embarc | |
|---|---|---|
| Who they work with | Any seller: resellers, wholesale, arbitrage and brands | Private-label brands only |
| Hard accounts | Often declined: restricted categories, suspensions, collapsing sales | Actively taken on; turnarounds are a specialty |
| Scope | Mostly PPC; listings, inventory and account health billed as extras | Full account: ads, listings, SEO, Buy Box, inventory, account health |
| Who does the work | A junior manager across many accounts, with senior staff in the sales call | A dedicated lead who owns your account, backed by a decade of Seller Central experience |
| How often the account is reviewed | Monthly, or when something breaks | Weekly audits of spend, negatives, bids, budget pacing and rank |
| Reporting | Monthly ACoS and ad-sales screenshots | A plain-language weekly report: what changed, why, what we did, what’s next |
| Inventory | Not their job; ads keep spending into a stockout | Ad spend forecast against stock so you never pay to accelerate into a stockout |
| Compliance (supplements, skin care, topicals) | Generic copy, or the category is avoided | Claim-by-claim listing copy written to survive category review |
| Tools | Manual spreadsheets, or software left to run alone | AI-driven diagnostics for speed; every decision made by an experienced operator |
| Channels | Amazon only, or loosely bolted-on partners | Amazon plus Walmart, Meta, Google, TikTok Shop and Shopify under one plan |
| Contract | Long lock-ins and vague scope are common | Any minimum term and the full scope agreed in writing before you commit |
| If you leave | Check who owns the ad account, campaigns and creative | Everything stays in your own Seller Central and Ads accounts |
Why does “private label only” matter?
Because the job is different. A reseller wins on price and the Buy Box; a brand owner wins on rank, conversion, reviews and margin over years. An agency that serves both ends up with a playbook built for neither. Every account Embarc manages is a private-label brand, so every process — listing rewrites, Brand Registry, A+ Content, launch sequencing, rank tracking — is built around building a brand, not flipping inventory.
What happens when an account is in trouble?
This is where most agency relationships end. Restricted categories bring compliance reviews and ad limits; stockouts wreck rank; suspensions need a root-cause Plan of Action. Many agencies quietly decline these accounts or drop them when they turn. We specialise in them. Three of the four case studies on our results page started as a hard account: a medicated skin care brand in one of Amazon’s most restricted categories, a consumer products brand collapsing from repeated stockouts, and a brand-new supplement line with zero reviews. If your account is suspended, see our account reinstatement service.
Real results from anonymised accounts
All figures below are from accounts we manage today, taken from the accounts’ own Amazon data. Client names are withheld at their request and ours.
| Account (anonymised) | Starting point | Result under Embarc |
|---|---|---|
| Medicated skin care, US | $5.1K/month in a heavily restricted category (Apr 2025) | 4.6x to $23.6K/month by Jul 2026; units 377 → 1,324 a month; growth in 12 of 15 months |
| Consumer products, US | Stockouts drove sales from $12.3K to $2.4K/month | 19x April year over year ($2.4K → $45.6K); record month of $121.7K (Jun 2026, 3,920 units) |
| Private-label consumer brand, US | $24.0K/month with ads driving under a quarter of sales | 2x to $47.6K/month in four months; ad-attributed sales $5.9K → $39.7K a month |
| New supplement brand, US | First month: $271 (7 units), zero reviews | $4.5K/month by month five, growing every month |
| Skin care brand, US | Best seller held the Buy Box only 7.8% of the time | Pricing conflict fixed: Buy Box back to 100%, daily ad spend down 31%, revenue up 5% the same month |
None of these came from a bid change alone. The skin care account needed compliant listings before ads could scale. The stockout account needed inventory forecasting tied to the ad calendar. The Buy Box fix was a one-cent price change that no amount of PPC would have found. That is the difference between managing ads and managing an account.
How does Embarc run an account week to week?
Every account runs on the same operating system from week one:
- Data-first diagnosis. Before changing anything, we pull your sales, traffic, search query and ad history and find where revenue is leaking.
- Weekly advertising audits. Wasted spend hunted, junk search terms negated, bids retuned toward your target, budget pacing checked.
- Listings built for rank and compliance. Titles, bullets and backend keywords rewritten from real search data, and written to stay live in restricted categories.
- Search rank tracked weekly. Organic rank and share of query on your money keywords, so slippage is caught before it shows up as a sales drop.
- Inventory tied to marketing. Ad spend planned against stock, so momentum isn’t lost to a stockout.
- Reporting you can read. A weekly summary of what changed, why, and what it did to the numbers.
How do typical agency fees compare with Embarc’s?
Common models are a flat retainer, a percentage of ad spend, a percentage of sales, or a blend. Percentage-of-spend deals can reward an agency for spending more rather than spending well, and percentage-of-total-sales deals can charge you for organic sales you already had. Embarc quotes a scope-based fee after a free audit, so the price reflects the actual work your account needs, and any minimum term is confirmed in writing first. For market ranges and red flags, read our agency pricing guide.
When is a typical agency the better choice?
Honestly, sometimes. If you’re a reseller or wholesale seller, we’re not the right fit. If your account is healthy, your listings convert and you only want someone to run a defined PPC budget, a focused PPC shop or a good software platform may be enough — we compare those options in AI tool vs agency. Embarc is built for private-label brands that want one team owning the whole account, especially when growth has stalled or the account is in trouble.
How to compare agencies for your own brand
- Ask who will work on your account each week and how many other accounts they handle.
- Ask for a result from an account like yours: same category, same problem.
- Ask what’s in scope beyond ads, and what costs extra.
- Ask to see a sample weekly or monthly report.
- Read the contract for lock-ins, setup fees and who owns the ad account.
Our full list is in 10 questions to ask before you hire an agency.
Embarc Consulting is a private-label-only agency for Amazon sellers with more than 10 years of Amazon account management experience, listed in Amazon’s Service Provider Network and an Amazon Ads partner. See Amazon account management and Amazon PPC management.